South Dakota v. Bourland, 508 U.S. 679, 17 (1993)

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Cite as: 508 U. S. 679 (1993)

Opinion of the Court

tribal self-government or to control internal relations is inconsistent with the dependent status of the tribes, and so cannot survive without express congressional delegation," Montana, 450 U. S., at 564. Having concluded that Congress clearly abrogated the Tribe's pre-existing regulatory control over non-Indian hunting and fishing, we find no evidence in the relevant treaties or statutes that Congress intended to allow the Tribe to assert regulatory jurisdiction over these lands pursuant to inherent sovereignty.15

The question remains, however, whether the Tribe may invoke other potential sources of tribal jurisdiction over non-Indians on these lands. Montana discussed two exceptions to "the general proposition that the inherent sovereign powers of an Indian tribe do not extend to the activities of nonmembers of the tribe." Id., at 565. First, a tribe may license or otherwise regulate activities of nonmembers who enter "consensual relationships" with the tribe or its members through contracts, leases, or other commercial dealings. Ibid. Second, a "tribe may . . . retain inherent power to exercise civil authority over the conduct of non-Indians on fee lands within its reservation when that conduct threatens or has some direct effect on the political integrity, the economic security, or the health or welfare of the tribe." Id., at 566. The District Court made extensive findings that neither of these exceptions applies to either the former trust lands or the former fee lands. See App. 142-149. And although the Court of Appeals instructed the District Court

15 The dissent's complaint that we give "barely a nod" to the Tribe's inherent sovereignty argument, post, at 698, is simply another manifestation of its disagreement with Montana, which announced "the general proposition that the inherent sovereign powers of an Indian tribe do not extend to the activities of nonmembers of the tribe," 450 U. S., at 565. While the dissent refers to our "myopic focus," post, at 701, on the Tribe's prior treaty right to "absolute and undisturbed use and occupation" of the taken area, it shuts both eyes to the reality that after Montana, tribal sovereignty over nonmembers "cannot survive without express congressional delegation," 450 U. S., at 564, and is therefore not inherent.

695

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